CURDS AND WHEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 940, 5 April 1930, Page 31

CURDS AND WHEY

In Nursery Rhyme Land

One night, when Annabel Dot had been asleep for quite a long time, there came a tapping at her bedroom win - dow and she woke up. There were William Augustus, who lived next door, and a little boy fairy named Firefly. And when she went to the window they called out to her. and said: “Why ever are you sleeping with your window shut? That is a silly thing to do. All girls and boys ought to have their windows wid'e open. How do you think the Fairies are going to get in if you don't keep the window open?” Annabel Dot opened the window, and in they came. Then she asked them wliat they were going to do. •We re going to Nursery Rhyme Land.” said William Augustus; “coming?” “Oh, ves!” cried Annabel Dot, and in a twinkling they were off out of the window. and gliding away through the air to Nursery Rhyme Land. And wh< they got there Firefly took them to sc; Little Miss Muffet. “She has several Christian names ’’ whispered Firefly, “but they are worse to say than 'Little Miss Muffet.* Her names are Mollie Melinda Marian Maude.” When Firefly took the children and introduced them to her. she said: “Please will you call me Miss Muffet: I always like people to call me that.” They stared at her rather and thought that was a funny thing to say. but she didn’t seem to look as if it was a joke, so they didn’t say anything. Little Miss Muffet took them into the house—ever such a nice house it was—and introduced them to her Mother. And her Mother called her Miss Muffet, too, which seemed stranger than ever. Mrs. Muffet said would they like to go into the garden, and they said they would, please, so off they went into the garden. They thought it was a lovely garden. There was a beautiful lawn behind the house, with grass ever so green and ever so fine. And in the middle of the lawn there was a sort of lump. William Augustus said afterward it was like a camel’s hump to look at. “What’s that?” lie asked. “That’s my tuffet,” said Miss Muffet. “where I sit every morning at a quarter past eleven, and eat my bowl of curds and whey.” Over the tuffet the children, saw a big tree, with boughs that stuck out a Ion?; way. And at the back of the lawn there was a large piece of ground to play in, all long grass and bushes and trees. “What a wonderful time you must have playing here,” said Annabel Dot to Miss Muffet. “Oh, no!” said Miss Muffet; “I never play in that dirty place.” “Blit don’t the other children come and play hide-and-seek with you. and Red Indians, and all that?” asked William Augustus. “Of course not,” answered Miss Muffet. “I shouldn’t tiling of playing with the children round here. Besides, it’s my garden, and I don’t want them in it.”

“Jlavc they got gardens to play in? said William Augustus. Miss Muffet. ' The children began to think MisMufTet wis a very strange person Annabel Dot asked if there were an? rabbits, or squirrels, or little baby biruin the wood at the back of the lawn And Miss Muffet said there had bee? some, but site had driven them aw;: Annabel Dot looked as it* she couic hardly believe that, but Miss Muffet said she didn’t like animals and things "I always throw stones at them,” sin said. •But surely you love the butterflies. - said William Augustus. Miss Muffet said: “1 like pulling then wings off.” and Annabel Dot shivered all over when she Heard that. As foi Fairy Firefly, he looked as if he could have eaten Miss Muffet! 1 don’t know what would have hap pened next, if Mrs. Muffet hadn’t conn to the back door, and called out: “Miss Muffet, it’s time for your curds an* a hey.” Then Miss Muffet ran off, an. forgot to apologise for leaving tic children. But she was back in a minute with her curds and whey in a «Ica: little bowl, and a silver spoon to c;t: them with. Mrs. Muffet came out and said ‘Wouldn't you like the little girl aro boy to have some of your curds ami Whey ?” Miss Muffet looked quite surprised at that question, and she said. “Win there wouldn’t be enough left for me" So Mr». Muffet brought out a ginof milk for the children, and Miss Mul - let sat on her tuffet with her bowl and spoon, while they stood on the grass watching her. It was just about that moment that William Augustus turned round to s* < what Fairy Firefly was doing, and found he wasn’t there! He wasn't *■«> very surprised at that, but he did wonder where Firefly had gone to, «uul what he was doing. And then it happened! There was a branch of the big lr«which stretched right out over the tuffet where Miss Muffet was sitting While William Augustus had his glas turned right upside down on his nos* . getting the last little drop out of it he looked up toward the big tree, and saw a. spider hanging from that branch hanging on a long spider’s-wet thread, and coming slowly, slowly down t* the ground. Now William Augustus was rather interested in spiders, so 'he just watched that one, and wondered what relation it was to the on* Robert Bruce saw in the reading books at school. Then he wondered if it i would come down right on top of i Miss Muffet*s head. And that mad i him wonder if she’d like it. (It’s funn> j how much you wonder, if you on* I start, isn’t it?)

All this time Miss Muffet was sii ting on her tuffet, eating the curd and whey in teeny, tiny spoonsful, s as to make it last out. And she wafar too busy with her eating to noti*--what William Augustus was doing. Bn: Annabel Dot noticed that he was looking up into the tree. So she looked, too, then they both sat there, looking as if they’d been in a draught, and ■ got stiff necks. They really looked very ! funny, you know, only Miss Muffe' 1 didn't notice them. Well, that spider (he was a big fol ; low!) got lower and lower, till at la- • he came right down to the tuffet, and | there he -was, sitting on it, right be j side Miss Muffet, asking for a share of the curds and whey. And then she caught sight of him | She gave a scream that you could hav i beard at Mother Hubbard’s, the oth< I end of the street. Then she jumped u* in an awful hurry; such a hurry that she dropped the pretty howl and tli silver* spoon, and all the curds ami whey went spilling and running ov< .• the grass. And off went Little Mis Muffet, screaming and calling for h* > mother, and running away from tli ■ spider as hard as ever she could go. You’ll be wondering what William Augustus and Annabel Dot were doing while this was going on. Well, of I course, they weren’t afraid of tli * spider. They’d never hurt a spider ii 1 their lives, so they felt they wer* friends. And so they just sat thei • on the grass and laughed at the toi of their voices, to see Miss Muff* frightened away by a spider. Now. that’s the end of the story «»: : Little Miss Muffet, for she didn't com* I out of the house any more, and tli' children got tired of waiting, aim soon went off back to their beds. Bn: . that isn’t all the story. For wbil* they were still laughing, they turned | look at the spider again, and the spido ’wasn’t there! But Fairy Firefly was and he was laughing, too. so that 1 • had to hold his sides. Annabel Dot stopped laughing, an*i sat with her mouth wide open, starin', at Fairy Firefly, at which he laugh? <; harder still. But William Augustus said: “I knew it was you, because you waggled one of your legs at me as yo came down on to the tuffet.” “Wasn’t it a good idea?” said FairFirefly. “Rather!” raid William Augustus' “it was just the very way to punisi. her.” Annabel Dot said: “Well, I don’t mind about her not giving us son. curds and whey, but I do hope she - lenrnt now not to be cruel to animals and butterflies.”